the only reason we can't saturday fiscal cliff negotiations have fallen apart is that the two sides are still talking. but things are bad, make no mistake. and neither side is optimistic that anything can get done at all. with congress and the president careening to the edge of the cliff, the public is ignoring party lines and demanding an end to this mess. 70% of democrats, 59% of republicans want their own party's leaders to come to an agreement, even if it means not sticking to long-held positions on taxes and entitlements and yet despite those demand, the country is evenly divided on whether they think a consensus can be worked out here in washington, whether they believe obama and boehner can strike a deal. interestingly folks that are paying more attention to the fiscal cliff story are more pessimistic. it's the folks paying less attention that are more optimistic. judging by what we're hearing from negotiators, the public clearly knows something is up in the bad way. >> i remain the most optimistic person in this town but we've got some serious differences. the longer the white h